Page:The Tibetan Book of the Dead (1927).djvu/171

 Deities had shone upon thee, one by one; and thou hadst been set face to face, but, owing to the influence of thine evil propensities, thou wert awed and terrified by them and hast remained here till now.

If thou hadst recognized the radiances of the Five Orders of Wisdom to be the emanations from thine own thought-forms, ere this thou wouldst have obtained Buddhahood in the Sambhoga-Kāya, through having been absorbed into the halo of rainbow light in one or another of the Five Orders of Buddhas. But now look on undistractedly. Now the lights of all Five Orders, called the Lights of the Union of Four Wisdoms, The philosophically descriptive Tibetan terms (which are not contained in our text) for these Four Wisdoms are: (1) Snang-Stong (pron. Nang-Tong), 'Phenomena and Voidness'; (2) Gsal-Stong (pron. Sal-Tong), 'Radiance and Voidness'; (3) Bde-Stong (pron, De-Tong), 'Bliss and Voidness'; (4) Rig-Stong (pron. Rig-Tong), 'Consciousness and Voidness'.

They correspond to the four stages of dhyana which arise in the same order. They probably also correspond, but in a less exact manner, to the Four Wisdoms: the Mirror-like Wisdom, the Wisdom of Equality, the All-Discriminating Wisdom, and the All-Performing Wisdom.

' Dhyāna consists of progressive mental states: analysis (Skt. vitarka), reflection (Skt. vichāra), fondness (Skt. prīti), bliss (Skt. ānanda), and concentration (Skt. ekāgratā). In the first stage of dhyāna, the devotee asks himself, "What is this body? Is it lasting; is it the thing to be saved?" and decides that to cling to an impermanent, corruptible bodily form, such as he thereby realizes it to be, is not desirable. Similarly, having gained knowledge of the nature of Form, he analyses and reflects upon Touch, Feeling, Volition, Cognition, and Desire; and, finding that Mind is the apparent reality, arrives at ordinary concentration,

'In the second stage of dhyāna, reflection only is employed; in other words, reflection transcends the lower mental process called analysis. In the third stage, reflection gives way to a blissful state of consciousness; and this bliss, being at first apparently a physical sensation, merges into pure ecstasy, in the fourth stage. In the fifth stage, the sensation of ecstasy, although always present in a suppressed or secondary condition, gives way to complete concentration'—Lāma Kazi Dawa-Samdup. will come to receive thee. Act so as to know them.

O nobly-born, on this the Sixth Day, the four colours of the primal states of the four elements [water, earth, fire, air] will shine upon thee simultaneously. At that time, from the Central Realm of the Spreading Forth of Seed, the Buddha Vairochana, the Divine Father-Mother, with the attendant